Though the demonstrators were all arrested, they were all cited and released late Monday night to applause and hugs from supporters. It is now up to the San Francisco district attorney to decide what the formal charges will be. That process will play out over the next couple of months.

Matthews was one of 25 protesters who were arrested after taking part in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day demonstration that shut down much of the Bay Bridge.

The group chained themselves and five cars together, effectively blocking all westbound lanes.

"We understand that it was an inconvenience," she said. "But so was 400 centuries of white supremacy. And so it was a way to disrupt business as usual, disrupt the complacency around the systemic oppression that exists and the constant terrorism on black people."